The Destinate Growth Pyramid: Strong Foundations

Is Your Tourism Business Actually Ready to Grow?

In the first article in this series, I introduced the Destinate Growth Pyramid, a framework that helps tourism businesses consider growth in the right order, beginning with purpose and strong foundations before moving into brand and marketing, distribution, relationships and, ultimately, sustainable growth.

Purpose sits underneath the entire pyramid because it defines what you are building and what you want the business to deliver for you, your customers, your team and your community.

Once that purpose is clear, attention can turn to the first numbered layer of the pyramid: strong foundations.

This is where the commercial and operational health of the business is established, and it is also where many of the issues that later appear to be marketing problems begin.

When bookings are slower than expected, the natural response is often to increase promotional activity. The business may begin posting more frequently, offering discounts, joining another booking platform, attending trade events or investing in new imagery and advertising.

Those activities can certainly generate attention, although attracting more people towards the business will only produce stronger results when the product, pricing, booking journey and delivery systems are ready to support them.

Before spending more time and money on marketing, it is worth asking a much more important question.

Is your tourism business genuinely ready to grow?

Can people quickly understand what you sell?

Tourism operators are often too close to their own businesses to see their products through the eyes of someone discovering them for the first time.

You know what makes the experience special, how the day unfolds, which stories your guides share, why you selected a particular route and which customers are likely to enjoy it most. A potential visitor, travel agent or inbound tour operator may only give you a few seconds to communicate all of that.

If they cannot quickly understand what the experience is, who it suits, how long it takes, where it begins and why it is worth choosing, the sale becomes much harder.

Clear product packaging becomes especially important when you work with travel trade because another person needs to understand, remember and confidently recommend your experience without you being there to explain it.

When I meet with travel sellers, the products they remember are usually those with a clear point of difference, an obvious customer and a simple story they can repeat to someone else.

Take a fresh look at your website, product descriptions and trade collateral. Could someone unfamiliar with the business explain your main experience after reading about it once? Would they know who it is suitable for, what is included and what makes it different from other options in the destination?

If the customer or travel seller needs to work hard to understand the product, there is probably more work to do before increasing the marketing around it.

Do you know which customers you want more of?

Wanting more customers is understandable, although growth becomes much easier to manage when you are clear about which customers are valuable to your business and which ones you are best equipped to serve.

A product designed for families with young children requires a different experience, price point and marketing approach from one created for premium international couples. A business targeting conference and incentive groups will need different systems, inclusions and sales relationships from an operator focused primarily on independent domestic travellers.

Trying to appeal to everyone usually results in vague messaging and scattered marketing activity, with the business spreading its budget and attention across too many audiences.

Look closely at the customers who already enjoy your experience, spend well, leave strong reviews and fit comfortably within the way you operate.

Where do they come from? How do they find you? What matters most to them? What questions do they ask before booking? Who influences their decisions, and which parts of the experience do they talk about afterwards?

The clearer you become about the customers you want to attract, the easier it becomes to develop the right products, choose useful partnerships and distribution channels, and create marketing that speaks directly to the people most likely to book.

Does your pricing support the business you are trying to build?

Pricing is one of the most important foundations of a tourism business, and it is also an area many operators find difficult.

Prices are often influenced by what competitors charge, what customers are expected to tolerate or what feels reasonable to the business owner. These approaches can leave very little room for increasing costs, staff development, maintenance, marketing, trade commission or future investment.

A busy experience is not necessarily a profitable one.

Your pricing needs to reflect the true cost of delivering the product, the value the customer receives and the type of business you want to operate.

It should account for staff time, preparation, equipment, vehicles, fuel, maintenance, insurance, booking fees, cancellations, administration and all the small costs that are easily overlooked when calculating the price of an experience.

If working with travel trade forms part of your growth plan, commission also needs to be built into the pricing from the beginning. Adding it later can make the final retail price uncompetitive, while absorbing it without enough margin can turn apparently successful sales into disappointing commercial results.

This is also a good opportunity to look beyond total revenue and understand the contribution made by each product.

Some experiences may be popular but expensive or complicated to deliver, while others may operate with fewer customers and provide a healthier return. You may also find that one product attracts customers who spend more elsewhere in the business, travel during quieter periods or are more likely to recommend you.

Understanding those differences gives you a stronger basis for deciding which products deserve more investment and promotion.

Is it easy to make a booking?

Tourism businesses lose potential customers every day through booking journeys that require too much effort.

A visitor may find the right experience, become excited about it and then encounter unclear availability, missing information, a booking system that is difficult to use on a mobile phone or a message telling them to call during office hours.

Every additional step creates another opportunity for them to leave.

Go through your own booking process as if you were a customer who had never heard of the business. Use your phone rather than a desktop computer, check how quickly the pages load and read every piece of information you receive after booking.

Can customers see live availability and understand the price? Are the inclusions and exclusions clear? Do they know where to meet, what to wear, what to bring and what happens if the weather changes? Can they easily find your cancellation policy? Does the confirmation email give them confidence that they have made a good choice?

The booking journey is part of the customer experience, and it begins shaping a visitor’s opinion of the business well before they arrive.

A simple, reassuring process can help convert interest into bookings while reducing the number of questions your team needs to answer manually.

Can you deliver consistently as demand increases?

Growth places pressure on people, equipment, vehicles, systems and service standards, which is why capacity needs to be considered before a major promotional push begins.

If bookings increased by 20 per cent next month, what would happen?

Would you have enough trained staff? Could enquiries still be answered promptly? Would vehicles and equipment be cleaned, checked and ready? Could every customer receive the same welcome and level of care? Would the owner need to work even longer hours to hold everything together?

For many owner-operated tourism businesses, growth can increase dependence on the owner because so much knowledge sits in one person’s head.

Documented procedures, good training, clear responsibilities and reliable systems allow the business to deliver consistently when it becomes busier, when a staff member is away or when a new person joins the team.

This does not mean removing the personality that makes an owner-operated experience special. That personal connection is often one of the strongest reasons customers choose a smaller tourism business.

The aim is to make sure the quality of the experience does not depend on one person remembering and managing every detail.

What do your customers experience once they arrive?

A strong foundation also includes the complete customer experience, from the first enquiry through to the follow-up after the visitor leaves.

Small moments can have an enormous influence on how someone remembers the business. The welcome they receive, the cleanliness of the facilities, the confidence of the guide, the way delays are handled and the interest shown in each customer all contribute to the final impression.

The experience needs to match the promise made through your website, imagery and marketing.

Reviews are particularly useful here because they show which parts of the experience customers value, where expectations are being exceeded and where recurring frustrations may exist.

Look for patterns rather than concentrating only on individual comments. If customers repeatedly mention the same guide, story, view or personal touch, that may be an important part of your value proposition. If they regularly express confusion about the meeting point or what to bring, that is a foundation issue that can usually be fixed quite easily.

Strong tourism businesses keep learning from the people they serve and use that feedback to improve the experience over time.

A quick foundations check

Before investing in your next campaign, take an honest look at the business underneath it.

Ask yourself:

• Are our main products clear, distinctive and easy to explain?

• Do we know which customers we want to attract?

• Does our pricing cover our costs and support a healthy margin?

• Can customers easily find the information they need and complete a booking?

• Do we have the people, equipment and systems to manage more demand?

• Can we deliver a consistent experience without the owner overseeing every detail?

• Are we actively using customer feedback to improve?

You do not need to have every part of the business perfected before you begin marketing, but you should understand where the weaknesses are and how they could affect the results you are trying to achieve.

Marketing can place a brighter spotlight on your tourism business. Strong foundations make sure the business is ready when more people begin paying attention.

In the next article in the Destinate Growth Pyramid series, I will move into Brand and Marketing, looking at how tourism businesses can turn a clear product and customer proposition into marketing that builds recognition, confidence and bookings.